DANZ
is the name of the textile and fashion design studio founded by Mara Danz in 2021. Rooted in contemporary design and regional textile heritage, the studio merges artisanal techniques with environmentally conscious and socially engaged practices.
Mara Danz is a fashion designer, textile artist, and art educator who researches and works with textiles as both material and medium for implied meanings. She works in an open, process-oriented way, guided by intuition and experimentation, engaging in a dialogue with both the material and the body.
Studio DANZ produces collections, performances, and textile-based projects that explore the emotional, social, and political dimensions of textiles and clothing. Each project becomes a space for reflection, collaboration, and imagination—where textiles act as vessels of collective memory, knowledge, and transformation.
Working between Zurich and Glarus, Mara Danz draws on the region’s rich textile history, collaborates with artists and local manufacturers — such as a regional silk manufactory with whom she creates vibrant screen-printed fabrics based on archival research.
Her work explores the relevance of artisanal techniques in future contexts, approaching textiles as carriers of knowledge and memory. Mara Danz explores textile knowledge rooted in the region, which is increasingly in danger of disappearing, and reflects on her personal and situated connection to textile practices – and looks through her perspective at the gaps and 'Leerstellen' that are often left out in the conventional narrative.
The clothing projects are crafted in Switzerland from deadstock fabrics, natural fibres, or self-developed textile innovations — such as the rediscovered use of Swiss sheep wool for felting and textile design. They offer a joyful, artisanal, and sustainable alternative to the conventional fashion industry.
Education plays a central role in Mara Danz’s practice: she teaches fashion design and art, leads art mediation programs in a contemporary art museum, and develops workshops and exhibitions to engage broader audiences in critical dialogue around textiles and craft.
